Adi-lila, Chapter 7 103
prakrta kariya mane visnu-kalevara
visnu-ninda ara nahi ihara upara

SYNONYMS

prakrta—material; kariya—taking it'to be so; mane—accepts; visnu—Lord Visnu’s;
kalevara—body; visnu-ninda—defaming or blaspheming Lord Visnu; ara—beyond
this; nahi—none; ihara—of this; upara—above.

TRANSLATION

“One who considers the transcendental body of Lord Visnu to be made of
material nature is the greatest offender at the lotus feet of the Lord. There is no
greater blasphemy against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT

Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatt Gosvami explains that the variegated personal
feature of the Absolute Truth is the Visnu-tattva, and the material energy which
creates this cosmic manifestation is the energy of Lord Visnu. The creative force is
merely the energy of the Lord, but the foolish conclude that the Lord has no
separate existence because He has distributed Himself in an impersonal form. The
impersonal Brahman, however, cannot possess energies, nor do the Vedic literatures
state that maya (the illusory energy) is covered by another maya. There are hundreds
and thousands of references, however, to Visnu-maya (parasya saktih), or the energy
of Lord Visnu. In Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Krsna refers to mama maya (‘‘My energy’’).
Maya is controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; it is not that He is
covered by maya. Therefore Lord Visnu cannot be a product of the material energy.
In the beginning of the Vedanta-sutra it is said, janmady asya yatah, indicating that
the material energy is also an emanation of the Supreme Brahman. How then could
He be covered by the material energy? If that were possible, material energy would
be greater than the Supreme Brahman. Even these simple arguments, however,
cannot be understood by the Mayavadi philosophers, and therefore the term
mayayapahrta-jnana which is applied to them in Bhagavad-gita is extremely appro-
priate. Anyone who thinks that Lord Visnu is a product of the material energy, as
explained by Sadananda Yogindra, should immediately be understood to be insane,
for his knowledge has been stolen by the illusory energy.

Lord Visnu cannot be placed within the category of the demigods. Those who
are actually bewildered by the Mayavada philosophy and are still in the darkness of
ignorance consider Lord Visnu to be a demigod, in defiance of the Rg-vedic mantra,
om tad visnoh paramam padam (‘‘Visnu is always in a superior position’). This
mantra is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita. Mattah paratararn nanyat: there is no
truth superior to Lord Krsna or Visnu. Thus only those whose knowledge has been
bewildered consider Lord Visnu to be a demigod and therefore suggest that one
may either worship Lord Visnu, the goddess Kali or Durga or whomever he likes and
achieve the same result. This is an ignorant conclusion that is not accepted in
